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In 1936, Rock Island came out with a new edition of The Garden of Allah. While much of the text was similar to that of the 1934 edition, the beautiful Babcock illustrations were replaced with some 40 black-and-white photos. The gain in realism was more than offset by the gain in drabness.

Click image to download a 36.1-MB PDF of this 40-page booklet.

The front cover is the only color illustration in the booklet. It is unsigned, but doesn’t appear to be Babcock’s style.

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The Garden of Allah: 1936 Edition — 1 Comment

Yes, but the drabness was also compensated for by an assortment of comely lasses in every other photo. 🙂 A few of them are quite daring for 1934.

I’m kind of surprised to see the promotion of the Carrizo Gorge line of the SD&AE. The SP had purchased the SD&A only the previous year and the line still had numerous blockages from landslides and tunnel blockages. It must have been a slow, hot trip from El Centro to San Diego in 1934. Except for the Gorge itself, most of the line was totally uninteresting, especially for Easterners. The grim desert scenery from Plaster City west to Campo needed a lot of PR work to make it a tourist attraction. Passenger service only lasted 17 years under SP ownership, and SP finally threw in the towel in 1966, when Hurricane Kathleen destroyed large portions of the line. Since then, many, many operators have tried to make a go of it, but the Gorge has defeated them all. The only successful remaining portions of the line function as rapid transit lines in and around San Diego.

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